


A Cage Made for Her

by Merfilly



Series: Padawan Plight [12]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Mental Coercion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 17:42:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9196538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Ahsoka and Luminara find a clue as to where to start. Ahsoka is dead-set on bringing Barriss home.





	

Luminara had breached Barriss's privacy to go through her belongings, and Ahsoka had assisted, looking at the small incidental things there. There hadn't been much, but a flier for a place Ahsoka remembered from their mission into the lower levels had drawn her attention. She had focused, reaching for her sense of where Barriss was… down and far away matched her memory of the mission's details.

"I think I can find her."

"You mean 'we', padawan."

Ahsoka shook her head. "No, Master Luminara. I'm going to have to ask you to monitor from a distance. She's only a haze on my awareness, which means either someone is drugging her, using mind gifts against her, or she's injured. I'm betting one of the first two. And, no offense, but I don't recall ever seeing you in Master Fisto's classes."

Luminara gave a surprised but impressed smile to that deduction. "That only guards you, Ahsoka, if it is mental manipulation."

"Ahh, but I am Togruta! Most people load their drugs for human and near-human. While I would be at risk if they use certain sedatives, or a Twi'lek cocktail, the ones common to brainwashing? Don't cross my cell-barriers."

"And you know this how?" Luminara asked, more to make certain the padawan wasn't trying to bluff her, even as a long distant conversation with Shaak Ti came to mind on the issue.

"Master Secura gave my master a safety briefing, including notes from Master Ti, because we were running around on the Outer Rim, where Twi'lek cocktails are way too common," Ahsoka admitted. "Kix, our medic, kind of freaked out and educated himself on Togruta biology, which led to me learning a lot more about my species than I think I really needed to know."

Luminara inclined her head. "How am I to monitor you, then, padawan?" she asked conceding the point to Ahsoka and starting the process of setting this into mission parameters.

+++

Barriss flinched backward from the Iktotchi male that had imprisoned her here. He reeked of corruption on her senses now that he made no pretenses about his goals.

"Your plan was quite a success," he told her with a cruel laugh. "Jedi and clones are dead, with no evidence that shows it as an outside effort. Which means they will come under suspicion. I do wonder who will take the fall… perhaps your master? Driven to madness by the loss of her padawan?

"Or maybe that pretty little Togruta that wanders into your mind now and then? She's been recalled, with her master. Either way, they Jedi Order will have to find someone to blame. The public will be demanding it."

Barriss cringed from the male's words, her heart denying all of it. 

"I came seeking help in a way to end the war," she pushed herself to say. "A way to make the Senate see the strife is not getting us anywhere! Why do you seek to punish innocents and twist the nightmares in my mind to reality?!"

He gave a malevolent smile for her. "Oh you will find the war ending soon enough, pretty little Jedi. When my Lord Dooku hears of the chaos I have sown, he will push his side of the war harder, and the Republic will fall."

"I have problems with that plan," a new voice said, and Barriss almost thought she had to be hallucinating. How could Ahsoka have found them? "But thank you for confessing all of that. I got it all recorded and transmitted. CorSec will be here soon," Ahsoka promised as she strode forward in all confidence, hands empty, but two hilts shining prominently on her belt.

The Iktotchi roared in rage and turned to slam the girl with a wave of emotional energy through his mental gifts, having found that to be an easy way to paralyze most Jedi. 

Barriss could have told him that Ahsoka was far from being like other Jedi, if he'd asked or paid attention to all that he'd reaped from her mind. The mental attack slammed into the iron-shields of the Teräs Käsi combat discipline, and then Ahsoka flowed into the unarmed fighting style itself, refusing to use her lightsabers unless she had to, so this man could face justice.

She didn't even need to defeat him; she only needed to delay him from escape long enough for CorSec to show up. As Barriss observed the fight from the cage she was kept in, she could only feel a deep shame for not being stronger, smarter… and she wondered why Ahsoka had even bothered to try and save her.

+++

Luminara slipped out of the room to find Ahsoka waiting on her.

"I had to use a sedative," the elder Jedi said wearily. "The collapse that began when you got her back to me had continued, and she had no shields, no control."

Ahsoka closed her eyes, shoulders slumping. "The Iktotchi probably broke them, taking her nightmares from her." She scuffed her feet a little, nervous about asking the next part but not wanting Barriss to be alone. "May I stay with her, Master Luminara?"

The Mirialan came close and actually rested her hands on the bare shoulders of the Togruta. "With my full blessing, Ahsoka. I trust you to know the boundaries that should be present while she is in such a fragile state."

Ahsoka looked up (thought not so far anymore) at the elder woman and nodded slightly. "I just want to help my friend be well."

"I know."

Luminara moved aside, and Ahsoka went into Barriss's room, taking off her belt and boots. She slid into the bed, just lying near her sedated friend (lover? Were they still? Would they be okay when this all was said and done?) without touching her. Touching required consent, and that couldn't happen right now.

Ahsoka would not truly sleep, either, maybe doze some, but mostly she meant to keep vigil, to be here when Barriss woke. Hopefully, when she did, she would let Ahsoka help her with everything that had happened.

Either way, Barriss had a long road of recovery ahead of her, and Ahsoka wanted to be part of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Teräs Käsi is an unarmed discipline, complete with mental disciplines, to be used against Jedi. I hypothesize that they would be effective against a telepath as well.


End file.
